Technology has had a profound impact on the accounting profession. Today, several innovative technologies can help accountants streamline their work and improve productivity.
Building a strategic accounting technology stack is necessary if your company is looking to take advantage of these technologies. Here we’ll explain what an accounting tech stack is, why it’s important, some key benefits, and how to build one strategically.
What is an Accounting Tech Stack?
The term ‘tech stack’ is an abbreviation of “technology stack.” A typical accounting tech stack includes bookkeeping software, financial reporting software, and an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
An accounting tech stack refers to a series of stitched-together software apps. Each performs a different accounting function to complete the end-to-end accounting process. Most accounting tech stacks include primary accounting technology to record revenue and expenses and a combination of supporting app integrations to pay bills, calculate taxes, manage employee reimbursement, capture receipts, interact with clients, and so forth. The more integrated apps added to the stack, the higher the risk of lost and orphaned records or data security breaches.
To address this, businesses are turning to AI accounting automation software like Docyt to replace a myriad of one-off apps. Along with comprehensive bookkeeping capabilities, Docyt provides business owners with advanced financial insights to better support high-level strategic decision-making.
Why is Having an Accounting Tech Stack Important?
An accounting tech stack is necessary because it allows businesses to automate their accounting and financial processes. Automating these processes saves businesses time and money by standardizing and streamlining your processes.
Most accounting stacks start with accounting software like QuickBooks, Xero, or Sage. From there, many business owners search for add-ons to their bookkeeping software like Bill.com, Dext, and Expensify, to expand functionality—and while most of these solutions will integrate with a variety of accounting software, they will only manage one or two parts of the accounting process. All-in-one AI-powered accounting software like Docyt handles everything from expense management to revenue tracking and removes the hassle factor of piecing together multiple applications.
The process of identifying and comparing the myriad of apps on the market can be downright mind-boggling – just scrolling through the Quickbooks app store can be overwhelming. Take a look at some key differences between some of the most popular accounting software add-ons.
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All-in-one bundled AI-powered accounting software for automating all back-office tasks |
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Real-time accounting |
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Revenue tracking |
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For CPA firms |
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For individuals and businesses |
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Full accounting cycle dashboards |
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Bank reconciliations |
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Billing/Invoicing |
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Cloud-based/mobile access |
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Collaboration & approvals |
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Customizable Reports |
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Data entry automation |
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Distribution of financial task burdens |
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Document management |
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Expense management |
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Payroll management |
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Payment Processing |
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Internal controls/compliance and security |
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User support |
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Vendor management |
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Integrations required |
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Add-on apps required |
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5 Benefits Of An Accounting Tech stack
- Eliminates manual entry which reduces the risk of human error;
- Saves time;
- Increases accuracy and timeliness;
- Shifts from physical paper documents to digital records;
- Reduces manual labor and increases efficiency.
This means business owners can focus on running their business while accounting automation software handles monotonous bookkeeping tasks. AI accounting software should be a part of any strategic and efficient accounting tech stack to handle back-office tasks efficiently.
Building a Powerful Accounting Tech Stack
Strategically building a powerful accounting tech stack doesn’t need to be daunting. Here are some key steps that should be factored into your decisions.
Consider your company’s needs
When choosing software add-ons for your accounting stack, it’s important to consider the unique requirements of your business. If you only pay bills, a simple single solution like Bill.com may be all you need. In fact, smaller businesses with a single bank account and limited transactions may not need add-on apps at all. If you’re looking for full back-office automation, rich financial insights, and real-time reporting, however, you need Docyt. Make sure to compare the features in each solution, as we’ve done above, to find the right one. If you keep these critical points in mind, you’ll be well on your way to building a powerful accounting tech stack that will help your business run smoothly.
Think about how automation will work in your business
Another vital thing to consider is how automation will fit your company’s business. Docyt learns by reading and extracting data from a large volume of documents including receipts, invoices, revenue reports, and bank statements – All of which become fertile soil for machine learning. This feeds the automation layer that moves the data through workflows and finishes in continuous reconciliation. Ultimately this saves you and your team a significant amount of time and provides rich, real-time financial insight into your business anytime, anywhere.
Choose the right accounting software
Business leaders can select the right tools to automate accounting processes by carefully evaluating your company’s specific needs and budget. Choose affordable yet integrated accounting software that fits your business needs and goals. While there are many pre-accounting apps, they are geared toward automating only single workflows. Docyt is the only truly integrated end-to-end (E2E) accounting automation software that captures both income and expense data, uses this data to fuel workflows, and then continuously reconciles the data which generates real-time financial reports. Docyt also provides centralized access controls and a single at-a-glance dashboard.
When looking for game-changing accounting automation software to add to your tech stack, look for automated reconciliation, financial reporting that allows you to drill down into the journal entries, and the ability to maintain full control of your data. It’s about finding a solution that can lighten your accounting teams’ load and make your current accounting tech software more robust in as few integrations as possible.
Contact us today to find out more about how we can help your company build a more powerful accounting tech stack to input, reconcile, and better understand your data for greater visibility and more informed decisions.
